Skip to content
Sales & Marketing

A Personal Connection with Your Audience

When you walk into a room to give a presentation, one of the best ways to break down the barrier between you and your audience is to form an immediate personal connection.

Personal Connection with Your Audience

When you walk into a room to give a presentation, one of the best ways to break down the barrier between you and your audience is to form an immediate personal connection. We always talk about building rapport in the context of one-on-one interactions; however, the same principle applies in a group setting where it’s very important to establish good rapport with your whole audience—after all, you want each and every one of them on your side when they compare notes with each other later to make a decision.

Personal Connection

So how do you make an immediate personal connection? It’s good practice to make eye contact with each person in your audience. You shouldn’t stare at anyone (of course), but you should scan the room and make eye contact while you speak.

Ideally, you will know at least one person by name, whether it’s the person who walked you into the room or someone you know from a previous engagement. If you do, address that person by name in front of the audience: "Hey, Tom, how are you doing? Thanks again for the help last week walking through 123 Main Street." What does that do immediately? It shows that you’re friendly and that you have a personal relationship with someone in the audience. In turn, the rest of the audience will subconsciously feel more comfortable with you knowing that you’re buddy-buddy with one of their friends. 

Sales Training That Works! Selling in 6.

Mark Jewell

Mark Jewell

Mark Jewell is the President and co-founder of Selling Energy. He is a subject matter expert, coach, speaker and best-selling author focused on overcoming barriers to implementing projects. Mark teaches other professionals and organizations how to turbocharge their sales success.

SUBSCRIBE-CONCEPT-876110004_727x484

Subscribe to our Blog

Get daily “drip-irrigation” reinforcement. Each day you’ll get bits of wisdom, news, highlights of upcoming courses, and quotes to keep you inspired and motivated.

Latest Articles

The sun sets on the Selling Energy blog

The sun sets on the Selling Energy blog

As of April 1st, our Selling Energy daily blog will be discontinued. And no, this is not an April Fool's joke!

Weekly Recap, March 31, 2024

Weekly Recap, March 31, 2024

Miss one of our sales blogs this week? Our weekly recap will get you caught up and prepared for success.

How You Sign Business Emails Matters

How You Sign Business Emails Matters

Emails are an integral part of our work, and with each one we hope to get a response. What if just two words can make all the difference?